E-rideable parliamentary inquiry: Deadline extended to December to look into e-bikes and e-dirtbikes

Any changes to laws governing e-rideables will not happen until next year following the extension of a parliamentary committee’s inquiry into the safety of the devices. Parliament approved on Wednesday the extension of the inquiry — a change flagged in July — as well as widening its scope to also include e-bikes and electric dirt bikes. The committee — tasked with inquiring into the safety, regulation and penalties associated with the use of e-rideables — will now have until December 4, the final parliamentary sitting day of the year, to report its findings. The inquiry was launched after the high-profile incident of Perth father Thanh Phan who was fatally struck by an e-scooter in May. In July a woman was fatally hit by an electronic motorbike, leading to calls for the scope of the inquiry to be widened. The time taken to make changes was criticised by Kalamunda MP Adam Hort in Parliament, who said the changes should have come sooner. “The Minister said he had been considering the possibility of the committee looking at electronic bikes, despite us mentioning it at least six weeks earlier in this very place,” he said. “It didn’t occur that maybe that’s something we could change there and then in this space, the pattern is very, very clear here, the Minister didn’t act when the expert reported.” Maylands MP and committee member Dan Bull told the opposition to “pull their heads in.” “It is utterly disappointed that the Liberals and the member for Kalamunda will take a pot shot right in the middle of this work,” he said. “The reality is the people in our community need this work done. “If the Liberals want to call pot shots after the work of the committee is done and they’re not happy with the way that the government responds to the recommendations, then so be it. “There is a political process, but right now there is one thing that this committee needs to do is be given the space, it needs to work in a bipartisan way to deliver the best work that it can in an extremely short amount of time.” The committee met again on Wednesday and heard evidence from Pedestrian Council of Australia chief executive officer Harold Scruby who argued in favour of increasing registration requirements for e-rideables. Mr Scruby gave an impassioned plea for mandating registration of e-rideables like that of regular motor vehicles. “Ladies and gentlemen, there’s no enforcement, the police cannot enforce it unless you’ve got some form of number plate, unless you’ve got penalties which reflect the same as dangerous driving on a motorbike, nothing’s going to change,” he said. “The police don’t have the resources, let alone the inclination or willpower or manpower or womanpower, they don’t have that.”

E-rideable parliamentary inquiry: Deadline extended to December to look into e-bikes and e-dirtbikes

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